Amusing tension spoke wheel model

Here's a simple demo of how a bicycle wheel works. Some may find it
amusing.

Take a short axle (I used a piece of PVC pipe) and put it
in a vise, end up.

Drop four reasonably matched rubber bands over the axle.
I used bands from the morning paper, rather thin.

Place a ring about twice the diameter of the bands on top.
I used a large keyring. Helps if the ring isn't too slippery.

Pull the rubber bands over the edge of the ring, and over the axle.
It's easy if the axle is held securely, thus the vise.

Shift the rubber bands until the ring is roughly centered.

Now you have a model bicycle wheel and can explore its behavior.
The most notable features are its radial stiffness and axial
compliance. With a large(ish) axle it's fairly stiff torsionally.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

On 4/30/2020 1:46 PM, bob prohaska wrote:
Here's a simple demo of how a bicycle wheel works. Some may find it
amusing.

Take a short axle (I used a piece of PVC pipe) and put it
in a vise, end up.

Drop four reasonably matched rubber bands over the axle.
I used bands from the morning paper, rather thin.

Place a ring about twice the diameter of the bands on top.
I used a large keyring. Helps if the ring isn't too slippery.

Pull the rubber bands over the edge of the ring, and over the axle.
It's easy if the axle is held securely, thus the vise.

Shift the rubber bands until the ring is roughly centered.

Now you have a model bicycle wheel and can explore its behavior.
The most notable features are its radial stiffness and axial
compliance. With a large(ish) axle it's fairly stiff torsionally.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

Wait... What does this have to do with Coronavirus?? ;-)


--
- Frank Krygowski

Frank Krygowski wrote:

Wait... What does this have to do with Coronavirus?? ;-)


Just trying to calm the herd. Didn't work 8-(

bob prohaska

On Friday, 1 May 2020 00:52:01 UTC-4, bob prohaska wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:

Wait... What does this have to do with Coronavirus?? ;-)


Just trying to calm the herd. Didn't work 8-(

bob prohaska

This newsgroup will be changing its name to Rec.Everything and Anything BUT Bicycles. newsgroup VBEG LOL

Cheers

On Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 10:46:41 AM UTC-7, bob prohaska wrote:
Here's a simple demo of how a bicycle wheel works. Some may find it
amusing.

Take a short axle (I used a piece of PVC pipe) and put it
in a vise, end up.

Drop four reasonably matched rubber bands over the axle.
I used bands from the morning paper, rather thin.

Place a ring about twice the diameter of the bands on top.
I used a large keyring. Helps if the ring isn't too slippery.

Pull the rubber bands over the edge of the ring, and over the axle.
It's easy if the axle is held securely, thus the vise.

Shift the rubber bands until the ring is roughly centered.

Now you have a model bicycle wheel and can explore its behavior.
The most notable features are its radial stiffness and axial
compliance. With a large(ish) axle it's fairly stiff torsionally.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

Now you're going to catch. You have a lot of nerve using rec.bicycles.tech for something technical about bicycles.